Hello darkness, my old friend
by Blahsblah2001
Summary: Dib wakes up in the woods without a cluse as to how he got there. It has somehting to do with Zim.


If you think I'm Jhonen, you're too stupid to understand this fic. Turn around now, reject, and go read some Barney books. If you don't think I'm Jhonen, congratulations, you're smarter than most lawyers who want to sue me!  
This is a pretty dark, violent fic. If you don't like violence, turn around now, if you don't like angst (writing that makes you depressed) turn around now. Good. This was based on a quote I read in Stephen King's Dreamcatcher, Hello darkness, my old friend. This story is the bastard offspring of this quote and my freakishly disturbed mind. Okay, you're bored, on wit da FIC!

Hello, darkness, my old friend. It's nice to see you once again.  
Dib shook his head, wondering if he was sinking into delusion.  
What had that quote come from? He had seen it from somewhere before, but where?  
It sure applied now, Dib thought, as he looked around. The sun had sunk below the horizon long ago, and by now the moon was high in the sky. Stars, his best friends, twinkled down at him. They seemed to be full of an empty hope.  
What was he even doing here? He tried to remember, but bolts of lightning cut through his head each time he had a new thought. Something to do with Zim, he knew that much. Everything now had to do with Zim, in some way or another.  
Everything ever, it seemed, had to do with Zim.  
Dib sat up from the dirty grass of the clearing where, he guessed, the fight had occurred. He didn't see anything but trees, and more lightning spread from his head to his arms, chest, and stomach. He almost screamed from the pain, but he held it in, and simply laid back down onto his back. Black stars swam around the edges of his vision. Hello darkness, my old friend. After a second, though, the blackness faded away with most of the pain, but grudgingly, with many threats to return if he stepped out of line.  
Dib closed his eyes, and brought the blackness back by force. It came happily. Hello, darkness, where did you come from?  
He tried to remember.

Then he was in the woods again. But it was lighter now. His head was filled with thought of… what? Something about Zim. And Zim was coming. Even as he thought it, the green Irken stepped out of the cover of the trees. A bolt of panic flared through Dib's mind, as it always did when he prepared to fight, but this time it was suppressed. Dib remembered, he had a secret weapon this time. Something Zim couldn't even imagine. He slipped his hand into his pocket, feeling the thing there, cool and hard.  
Zim said something, Dib didn't remember what. It melded with the thousand other insults Zim had hit him with over the years. And Dib struck, throwing the object at Zim where it had exploded, throwing up a huge cloud of poison gas. Zim screamed. Dib held his breath, and waited for it to dissappate.

Dib realized he was really holding his breath, the memory had been so strong, so sudden.  
But, wait. If he had thrown the bomb at Zim, why wasn't he at home right now, calling the eyeball? Had he inhaled some for some reason? And where was Zim?  
Dib sat up again, looking to the place he believed Zim had been standing. There as no body, no Zim. Something had gone wrong. What?

Zim was laughing. He shouldn't be laughing. He should be choking. What was wrong with the gas? Dib peered through the pinkish haze, trying to see his enemy. He was still holding his breath, and listening with increasing worry to Zim's laughs.  
Zim launched out of the smokescreen, using his spider legs for added speed, driving one booted foot directly into Dib's chest. The breath left his lungs in an explosive rush, and he barely managed to close his mouth before he inhaled some of the lethal gas. Vaguely, he could see Zim laughing again, a cruel hard laugh. A light pinkish bubble surrounded his head. Something from his Pak that kept the gas away from him? Maybe.  
Zim stopped laughing, advancing on Dib. Dib was trying to get away, his empty lungs screaming for air, even the pink air of the clearing, the air that would kill him.  
Darkness crept into his sight, advancing from the sides of eyes, like mice from a hole when the cat has left.  
Zim kicked him again, and he went down, almost straight into the pink cloud. It was fading a bit, but not nearly fast enough. He didn't think he could hold his breath for much longer. He tried to get up, get at least farther away from the densest part of the fog, but Zim was there again. Zim held him down, knowing he couldn't last much longer.  
Dib started to droop. He knew if he passed out he would lay here, breathing in toxins until he died. There wasn't any other choice. He took a deep breath, filling his lungs with both poison and oxygen. With the strength of someone who knows they have nothing to lose and their lives to win, Dib fought Zim off him.  
He started to run for it, but he didn't get far. Zim was ahead of him again, going much faster than Dib could, on his spider legs. Zim must have gotten him from behind, something hit him hard on the head, and his mind swam. He crumpled to the ground, darkness taking over at last. Through the last holed in the black, he saw Zim grinning at him. Hello darkness, my old friend.

In the present, Dib choked. He gently lifted one hand, reaching around the back of his head. There was a gash there, a huge thing that might not ever heal up properly. He figured he might have a concussion, too, but he didn't know.  
But where was Zim? He may not know much about humans, but he knew when they were breathing, their hearts pumping blood, they were alive. Dib knew he was alive, the pain racing through his body proved that beyond any fragment of a doubt.  
And so did Zim. Why had Zim left him her, alive. He could have ended the whole thing, ended it forever, here. But he had left, walked off into the woods with not even a scratch to show for the fight.  
His brain started to ask why, but Dib knew. Zim had left him here, left him to live another day, another fight. Because Zim knew that he could not be beaten. Zim knew that he would always win, and each time Dib dragged himself home to a family that didn't know he was gone, each time Dib added a new scar to his collection, it was a victory for Zim. Dib's life was one never-ending victory for Zim.  
Dib moaned, burying his head in his hands. He stayed that way for a long time, wishing on every star in the sky that Zim had hit harder.

I'm aiming for a long-lasting horror that haunts your mind here. Tell me if I get it. Please review, even if you're going to flame me. I've ever had one, I want to see what they look like. (COOKIES IF YOU REVIEW!) 


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